Small Business e-Business
Think Globally, Act Locally Online

If your online customer can conduct a transaction in their native tongue they will 4 times more likely to buy, do you know that?

The great equalizer and the gateway to the worldwide marketplace has been offered by the internet. Here’s an explanation: more than half of all internet users, a first language is not English.

To identify your target markets -- their habits, values, wants, needs, etc is the first step to globalizing your website. Here are some guidelines for user-friendly English content website to creating a cross-cultural:

• Simple is best, the most importantly
• Avoid figures of speech and slang - use plain, clear language; as common expressions may not be familiar to your readers
• Keep a way from use of humor, as it’s racially driven.
• Avoid vulgarity of any kind -- it possibly very rude to other cultures.
• Use simple & universal graphics that are unlikely to be misinterpreted.

Consider these aspects of development if your budget allows you to undertake some degree of globalization:

When wording is simple, direct translation of content is most effective, including one thought sentences only, kept a minimum to metaphors, and used terminology consistently.

Think carefully about design, graphics, navigational style and the cultural context of language.

Even common website graphics are not always universal so keep in mind your use of icons to assist the user. For instance, an icon of a house does not represent ‘home’ in France because the French call their homepage the ‘welcome page’. In the same way, for Macintosh’s garbage can icon for ‘trash’ has been mistaken as ‘email’ by British users whose mailboxes look similar to North American garbage cans.

Use wrongly of body language, logos or symbols can be embarrassing and can cost to your business. An owl in some Asian countries it connotes stupidity but in North America can symbolize wisdom. An open palm in other cultures it is an offensive gesture but it may mean ‘stop’ to North Americans.

Yet, color is cultural. For instance, white may signify in many Asian countries it is related to death and mourning but in North America may signify purity and may be associated with marriage.

Understanding of a global perspective and cultural sensitivity, small businesses doing business online can succeed in the international marketplace. Understand your target markets and you will be better equipped to serve them is the message behind globalization.

example of misunderstanding

If you find yourself on foreign soil, it's always best to know how to properly enrage your host with a native insult.

Here's a good example:
Example 1:

Margaret Thatcher mistakenly makes a palm-back v sign to English voters after an election gain. It's not the first time a politician told voters to piss off, but just not so elegantly.

Example 2

When President George Bush visited Australia on a state visit in 1993, as he passed the crowds of Aussies he flashed the “V” for Victory sign from the backseat of his limousine. Unfortunately, he did it backward that is, with the back of his hand facing people. The next day his picture appeared in newspapers from Sydney to Perth with the headline “President Insults Australia”, as in England that particular signal- the reverse “V”- signifies “Up yours”. The correct form is to have the palm face outward.

In conclusion, in most cultures; smiling means happy and frown means unhappy. [M. Argyle, Bodily Communication (New York: Methuen & Company, 1988)]. A few other gestures seem to be universal. But, most nonverbal symbols seem to be even further disconnected from any "essential meaning" than verbal symbols. Gestures seen as positive in one culture may be seen as offensive action in another culture.

Gang signs and symbols

http://ga.essortment.com/gangsignsands_reyp.htm

Gang signs and symbols

Most gangs use hand signs to identify their gang and as a form of communication. Hand signs are also used to "flash" a warning or a threat to rival gangs. Some gangs have elaborate hand and body signals, so advanced, that they can have complete conversations without saying a word. These signs are frequently used when they don't want others to know what they are about to do.

human instinct - we believe nonverbal expression more the verbal

http://www1.chapman.edu/comm/comm/faculty/thobbs/com401/nonverb.html

Nonverbal Communication

Old folk saying: actions speak louder than words. Research bears this out. When verbal and nonverbal contradict, we tend to believe the nonverbal. For one thing, it is seen as being more difficult to fake. An experiment reported by Zuckerman, DePaulo, and Rosenthal ["Verbal and Nonverbal Communication of Deception," Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 14 (1981): 1-59] showed that virtually everything we use to discern if someone else is lying comes from the nonverbal realm or the paralanguage realm, with the bulk falling in nonverbal."

Gesture- one of the most common way to communicate

Now we know hand gesture helps as to think, speak and learn. We are looking into our society; how people communicate with each other. From the research I did, I am surprised that most of the message we deliver to others is nonverbal. Also, according to Daniel Goleman’s international bestseller, Emotional Intelligence (1995) he claims 90 percent of our emotions are expression nonverbally.

Albert Mehrabian [Nonverbal Communication (Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1972)] found in his research that only about 7 percent of the emotional meaning of a message is communicated through explicit verbal channels. About 38 percent is communicated by paralanguage, which is basically the use of the voice. About 55 percent comes through nonverbal, which includes such things as gesture, posture, facial expression, etc. It is behavior other than spoken or written communication that creates or represents meaning.


"Gesturing is a stepping-stone toward symbolic communication," in which the form of the signal bears no relation to its meaning, says Pollick, now at the Washington, D.C.–based Association for Psychological Science. Using a gesture to convey a meaning that varies with context implies a capacity to redefine signals. "There isn't such a strict connection between a gesture and an emotional context as there is with [an ape's] scream," Pollick says.
Pollick, A.S., and F.B.M. de Waal. In press. Ape gestures and language evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Abstract available at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0702624104

Gestures help learning 2.

Another article from BBC Radio 4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/leadingedge_20060330.shtml
Gestures help learning 30/03/2006

Susan Goldin Meadow from the University of Chicago has been working with children and adults to find out just how important hand gestures are in learning science subjects. It might seem quite obvious, as we all use hand gestures in our everyday conversations, but Susan has found that if you prevent the use of hand gestures, then you stifle the ability to learn.

There seems to be an evolutionary reason for waving our hands about. It also could help you learn a foreign language - gesturing like a French or Italian person, could help you convince them you're really a native speaker!

Hand gesture help us to learn to express ourselves 1.

Remember when we were young and teachers taught us singing and moving our hand or body around at the same time?

I never really knew why till now. Body movement or hand gesture help us to express ourselves. Especially for us as international students, English is our second or third language; we tend to move our hands a lot when we couldn't find the right word to describe our feelings. People might think as we move our hands around it helps people to understand us. However, it actually help us to remember to think and to speak.
Here is one of the supporting articles from BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4437171.stm
Tuesday, 12 April, 2005
Fidgeting children 'learn more'
Children who fidget with their hands in class learn more quickly than those who stay still, say researchers. Psychologists found that children who could move their hands around freely were better at learning than pupils who were not allowed to move.They believe that hand movements and gestures can help children to think, speak and learn.

The research on primary school children was carried out by academics at the University of Hertfordshire.

The study examined the differences in learning when children were able to move around their hands and when they were forced to keep their hands still - by putting them into a pair of mittens attached to the table.

Hand to mouth

The psychologists found that when children were able to move their hands they were more likely to be able to find the correct answer - particularly when it was a case of trying to recall a word on "the tip of their tongue".
The children, aged six to eight, had been asked to name objects in pictures - and the researchers found that using their hands to gesture helped children to "find the right word".

"People often think we gesture to help others understand what we are saying. But in fact gestures help us find the right words," said researcher Karen Pine.

"We also know they can help children think and are important for problem solving and speaking.

"Therefore, far from restricting children from moving their hands, if teachers encouraged more fidgeting in class they might find children actually learn more," said Dr Pine.

"Children who fidget in class can be an annoyance for teachers. Many cope by telling children to sit on their hands or keep absolutely still in class, but our research has shown that they need their hands free so that they can gesture."

The research, by Dr Pine, Hannah Bird and Liz Kirk, was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.


“Far from restricting children from moving their hands, if teachers encouraged more fidgeting in class they might find children actually learn more”
Karen Pine, University of Hertfordshire